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Topic: $50 robot cable recognition (Read 8097 times)

I have the Atmel AVR ATmega8-16pc microcontroller, and have made the pc board for it. I've checked the pc board, and AFAIK there are not shorts, and everything that should gets power (~4.5v) The power is provided from a 7.2v 180ma transformer and a 5v regulator on the pc board. power is on when trying to connect.

I just received the serial-AVR programming cable and when I plug it in and look at device manager it says com 1. (I have it enabled)

The problem is that ponyprog2000 doesn't recognize it being connected. I have set ponyprog2000 to com 1, but don't know what to set the other options to.

Here are some pics.

Is there anything I could do to maybe test if the Microcontroller is ok.

i'm afraid this post will be of limited help as i've never used the PonyProg2000 and haven't programmed AVRs from windows before...

so is the PonyProg a powered device or just a fancy serial cable? i'm thinking that maybe the software isn't supposed to actually recognise the cable as a device.will the software let you try to program the AVR without having recognised the cable?

you probably have this covered but when you build the stripped down circuit for programming it would be worth soldering on any capacitors that Admin suggests between the +ive and GND lines. (to help smooth any ripples in the power.)but yes, otherwise all you need on there is the atmega8 and the power regulator.

after looking around and checking every connection wiht my dad, I got one of the servo's to shake while "connecting" as soon as the message popped up saying "device not found" it stopped. Turns out pins 1 and 2 solder were touching. after that it stil don't work and manually shorting the pins won't make it twitch no more.

I think the problem before was the voltage regulator. it spit out ~4v with 7v in.so 4x1.2v hotwired worked to some extent

I guess the mcu is fried. gonna probably get a new chip $3 for chip$12 for shipping and handling

well, 180mA isnt enough to power servos (a power dropout will cause the atmel to not work). disconnect the servos when trying to connect to the board. also, use your multimeter to measure the current draw when you try to connect to the atmel through ponyprog. if the current goes close to 180mA, that could be your problem.

another stupid-check, make sure only one program that is running on your computer is using com1. sometimes i might have hyperterminal using com1, causing conflicts.

if it still doesnt work after you fix the power issue, let me know. unfortunately i dont really understand the ponyprog enough to easily debug issues like this . . .

I think I'm just going to order it now since I can't wait for shipping 2x.What other stuff do you recommend getting since shipping is so expensiveI'm going to add stuff later to it, but have no idea ATM

I'm getting me 8 lm555's 12ft of heatshrink24 ledsand 3 atmega8's 100 or 500 pack of resistors at RS (will I even use up 500) (how long does it take you?)and I have a bunch of caps unsoldered from stuff

I was looking for infared sensors to use for object avoidance, but they were shown to be very close to teh wall (not far range)I was going to buy just a couple of IF leds and sensors, but the thing about wavelength output of led and wavelength receiving capabilities confused me.